AirAsia just got crowned the world’s best budget airline – here’s all the Malaysian brands that travellers loved in 2018

Malaysia-born AirAsia continued its six-year win streak for the title of world’s best budget airline on Sunday (Dec 2) at the grand finals of the World Travel Awards in Lisbon, Portugal.

The WTA was established in 1993 and acknowledges the world’s top travel and tourism brands. Awards are prestigious and globally recognised, and award winners are used as a benchmark of quality for the industry, the WTA said in a statement.

The budget airline beat out competitors like Ryanair and easyJet to clinch the title, which was decided on based on the number of votes from travellers and industry executives.

The airline clinched a second award for having 2018’s best budget airline cabin crew – a category it also won in last year.

Malaysia’s other international winner was One World Hotel, which won the title of the World’s best hotel for meetings and conferences.

The 5-star hotel has 438 rooms and is located in Petaling Jaya, next to Malaysia’s largest shopping centre, 1 Utama.

Apart from Airasia, over 10 hotels and locations in Malaysia bagged awards in three categories: international, regional and local – including a win for Asia’s best theme park resort, won by Resorts World Genting.

The Ritz-Carlton Kuala Lumpur won the award for Malaysia’s top hotel residence.

Lanson Place Bukit Ceylon Serviced Residences won the title of “Malaysia’s Leading Serviced Apartments 2018”, while Europcar and Hydramas Travel & Tours were recognised as the country’s top car rental company and travel agency respectively.

Among the other countries at the grand final, Portugal won the title of 2018’s top destination, island nation Mauritius won 2018’s most romantic destination, and the ancient Inca citadel of Machu Picchu won this year’s top tourist attraction.